The Great War Display Team
has added another converted Fly Baby to its Junkers staffel.
G-BUYU was build by John Nugent in South Wales, and was originally painted
in pre-WWII US Army Air Corps colors. Robb Metcalfe bought the plane
in September 2002, and replaced the original A65 with a C-85 ("I found
65 HP a little low on power for 400 yard farm strip use!" says Robb).
Over winter of 2004, John Day converted it to a Junkers CL1 "look alike"
similar to the Day/Gauld-Galliers aircraft.
Like the Day/Gauld-Galliers airplane, Metcalfe's Junkers has a surface-mount
dummy gunner (e.g., there's no "pit" behind the cockpit...everthing's flush
to the turtledeck. Says Robb, "My gunner is a great guy by
the name of Hans von Knees unt Bumpsydaisy." (which is an in-joke among
British sailors). The airplane has a smoke system installed.
The Great War Display Team now has a variety of aircraft, including a Nieuport,
an SE-5, a Sopwith Pup, and a Fokker Triplane. They participated
in the filming of the movie "Flyboys," though, regrettably, the Fly Babies
weren't involved. In 2005, they participated in 11 air shows.
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